Aston Martin V8 Vantage coupe (2005-2017) - MPG, running costs & CO2

It won't come as much of a surprise to hear that keeping an Aston Martin V8 Vantage on the road isn't cheap. Due to sizeable fuel and tax bills, you'll need pretty deep pockets to own as well as buy the car, and once you add in the hefty insurance premium and big tax liabilities for business users, you begin to understand why cars like Aston Martins are relatively exclusive.

Aston Martin has recently moved to make its aftercare more affordable, introducing a fixed-price servicing scheme. The other piece of good news is that Aston Martin's desirability as a brand means the V8 Vantage holds its value relatively well and you shouldn't have much of a problem selling the car when the time comes to part with it.

Aston Martin V8 Vantage MPG and CO2

The basic V8 Vantage is capable of 20.5mpg, which means you'll be stopping at the pumps roughly every 350 miles for 80 litres of premium unleaded. And you'll only get that far if you can resist exploring the limits of the car's performance, which is difficult.

A sky-high CO2 emissions figure of 321g/km puts the V8 Vantage in the top tax bracket, so you can add an annual road tax bill of £505 to the running costs. If you go for the optional Sportshift II automatic gearbox, which is operated using paddles behind the steering wheel, economy improves slightly to 22.4mpg and CO2 emissions drop to 295g/km, but the effect on running costs is negligible.

The same gearbox makes the slightly more powerful V8 Vantage S model more efficient than the basic V8 Vantage with a manual gearbox, but again, the difference is very small.

Insurance group

All Aston Martin V8 Vantage models produce well over 400bhp, and this combination of high value and high performance means they’re all rated in group 50 for insurance – the most expensive tier.

Servicing

You'll pay around £650 for the car's first 10,000-mile check-up and £680 for the second, 20,000-mile service. The price alternates between these two sums for every year or 10,000 miles of ownership, except at the five-year/50,000-mile mark, when the cost is £772. Obviously, these figures are high compared to those for normal cars, but the badge on the bonnet and the high-performance engine underneath it explain why costs for the V8 Vantage are so steep.

Warranty

Aston Martin offers a three-year, unlimited-mileage warranty with the V8 Vantage. You can extend the warranty at extra cost for either one or two years, and potentially longer depending on the condition of the car.